Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Mary Shelley: New projects to celebrate Dundee’s links with Frankenstein’s creator

The links between Shelley and Dundee are to be celebrated.
The links between Shelley and Dundee are to be celebrated.

The connections between Frankenstein author Mary Shelley and the years she spent in Dundee are to be celebrated in the city.

At just 14-years-old in 1812, Mary, who was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, travelled to Dundee to a country mansion, home to the family of wealthy jute baron William Thomas Baxter where she would stay for 15 months.

Mary would publish her best known work, Frankenstein, six years later and in the forward of the 1831 version of the seminal Gothic novel she would acknowledge the influence of Dundee on her early writings.

Now a focus group are looking at ways of celebrating those ties in Dundee after gaining the backing of the public.

Dundee link is a ‘missed opportunity’

John first became interested in the author’s connection to the City of Discovery in 2018 after attending projects held by Daniel Cook from the University of Dundee, which were based around Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. He then went on to research the author’s teenage years beside the Tay and began collecting rare original editions of her work.

He said: “Following the success of local events organised by Daniel, I was keen to see what original 200 year old editions of Frankenstein were held within the special collections of Dundee library.

John Gray.

“To my surprise there were none held so I started collecting extremely rare editions of Mary Shelley’s work and related works by other members of the ‘Geneva Circle’ including Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and Dr John Polidori who studied medicine at Edinburgh University.

“My work on collecting attracted quite a bit of interest from the public who were keen to know more about Mary Shelley’s links with Dundee. This in turn inspired me to focus on how best we could enable public access of rare materials and ways in which we could develop local community projects.”

John added an ultra rare first edition of Fantasmagoriana, the book which inspired Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, to his collection last year.

Describing the lack of projects surrounding Mary’s time in the city as a “missed opportunity” John alongside a steering group are now working on a range of projects to be held throughout the city in the near future.

‘Unprecedented levels of interest’

He added: “Back in January a local Facebook post about Mary Shelley attracted hundreds of messages of support from people throughout the city. With unprecedented levels of interest, the public have been hugely supportive with ideas and suggestions on what sort of community projects they would like to see developed in Dundee.

“Councillor Lynne Short has been central to developing projects and helped to organise the steering group established with help from a highly talented team.

“In addition to Lynne the team includes Daniel Cook and Matthew Jarron from the University of Dundee as well as Colin Clement from the Stobswell Forum. Daniel is a fabulous ambassador for all things Mary Shelley and I’m delighted to be working with him on a collaborative project which is both historic and particularly exciting, I’ve since received encouraging messages of support from others who are keen to get involved in developing projects in Dundee with the existing team likely to be expanded in the coming weeks.

“At this juncture it’s a little too early to announce projects but hopefully the group will be in position to release news in the next month or two. In the meantime there’s lots of hard work going on behind the scenes.

“I’m really hopeful that the projects being developed will not only help to bring all sections of the community together but will also hopefully attract inward investment to the city as well as well as helping to boost local tourism.”

Dundee’s influence on early works

Mary travelled to Dundee at just 14 looking for rest and recovery from illness. Her father William Godwin put his trust in his friend William Thomas Baxter to look after his daughter and ensure she got a better education than she was getting in London.

Mary Shelley.

In a letter he wrote to Baxter, her father said: “I am anxious that she should be brought up in this respect like a philosopher even like a cynic – it will add greatly to the strength and worth of her character.”

She was housed by the family at ‘The Cottage’ – a comfortable home that had originally been constructed as the Countess of Strathmore’s dower house on South Baffin Street until leaving in 1814, before embarking on travels in Europe with her new love, Percy Shelley, who she would marry in 1816.

In the summer of that year, while on holiday on the shores of Lake Geneva she began writing Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus – the story of young scientist Victor Frankenstein who creates a grotesque, sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.

It would be published two years later when Mary was just 20, going on to spawn dozens of films, plays and TV adaptations.

In the forward of the 1831 version, Mary, who died in 1851 aged 53 due to a suspected brain tumour, acknowledged the influence of Dundee on her early writings, stating: “I lived principally in the country as a girl and passed a considerable time in Scotland.

“I made considerable visits to the more picturesque parts but my habitual residence was on the blank and dreary northern shores of the Tay near Dundee.

“Blank and dreary on retrospection I call them – they were not so to me then.

“They were the eyry of freedom and the pleasant region where unheeded I could convene with the creatures of my fancy.”

Enthusiast says more must be made of Mary Shelley Dundee connection after securing rare book which inspired Frankenstein story